Drinks at Pret A Manger

You don't necessarily think of Pret A Manger as being in the beverages business, but in addition to their grab-and-go-sandwiches, salads, and baked goods, there's a whole case of Pret-branded drinks, and on the whole, these sippables are refreshing and well-made. We grabbed all the interesting ones for a quick review.

Let's start with the bubbly, shall we?

The Pure Pret Ginger Beer is sweetened with concentrated grape juice extract. While not as spicy as some we've tried, it has a nice grown-up bite to it. Most of our tasters liked the ginger beer more than the gingery Sparkling Yoga Bunny Detox, which was lightly lemony and refreshing (and spiked with echinacea and ginseng!) but not as flavorful as the ginger beer.

Pure Pret Grape and Elderflower will appeal to fans of St Germain who are looking for an alcohol-free refresher. It's juicy but not too sweet or perfumey, and the flavor is just a little unusual. We'd love to try it as a cocktail mixer, but during the day, put it in a tall glass with some ice and a lemon slice.

We weren't quite as wild about the Pure Pret Apple; it tastes a bit like a melted apple-grape gummy candy. The intensity of flavor is impressive, but the sweetness was just a bit too much for some of our tasters. We liked the Pure Pret Orange Soda much more; it's like a fruitier, less-dry version of Orangina, but it's not a candy-sweet Orange Crush. The tart orange flavor reminded us more of blood oranges than sweet mandarins.

The bottled lemonade was lemony enough to please most tasters, but it's not puckery-tart. We actually preferred the strawberry lemonade; though it's sweeter, it has a cheerful jammy quality we liked. Definitely kid friendly.

If you're looking for a little caffeine boost, we recommend the Black Tea and Lemon. This Arnold Palmer in a bottle is citrus-forward and totally refreshing, though tea lovers might want something a little more tea-focused. We didn't love the green tea version, which tasted overextracted and syrupy sweet.

Cider fans looking for something spring-appropriate should grab the apple cranberry juice; it balances bright tart cranberry-sauce flavors with apple cider. Of all of Pret's drinks, this was our favorite; it reminded us of something we could pick up at the local farmer's market.

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